Online Dating Tips Interview with Yahoo! Personals Expert
From Adviceopedia
If you have ever thought about dating online, you may be able to use some online dating tips. Here you will find the best tips from Kristen Sasser, who is an expert on finding love over the Web.
Online Dating Tips Interview with Yahoo Personals Expert
Online dating expert Kristen Sasser spends her days helping others find love online as the marketing manager at Yahoo! Personals. Her responsibilities include interacting with singles looking for love and developing content for Yahoo’s website.
One characteristic that makes Kristen the perfect person to share online dating tips is her personal experiences dating online. She is more than familiar with “dating tips, etiquette, and the best—and worst—ways to reach a person’s heart.”
Kristen took some time to answer our questions about online dating.
You mentioned you have dated online. Tell me about your experience.
I am an avid online dater and it has truly been a wonderful experience. I have met so many amazing people and made a lot of new friends in the process. I am still looking for my soul mate and I strongly believe that he’s out there. In the meantime though, I am enjoying going out on great dates!
What Internet dating advice do you have for someone just starting out?
- Be patient. Sometimes the search takes longer than we want it to, but it is important to stay positive. With any new person you meet, whether there is an attraction or not, remember that you at least made a new friend.
- Be honest on your profile. Expand your searches; you never know if your other half could be a few miles away. Be open-minded and have fun chatting and exchanging photos.
- Take it slow! Be selective, take your time and do whatever you're comfortable with. If you're not ready to meet in person yet, then wait. No one should pressure you.
When writing your biography, what should you include?
My advice is to include as much information as possible about yourself and what you want in a mate and in life. Try to make your headline creative and catchy in order to break through the clutter. We’ve also found that telling a brief story about a favorite memory is a good idea because if someone can relate to your story, they are much more likely to respond.
What advice do you have about posting pictures?
Photos are a very important part of online dating because it’s one of the first things that daters notice. We recently discovered that a profile with five photos will receive eight times as many e-mail replies as opposed to one without!
Try to remember to focus on the important things, such as: kids, beliefs, religion and other things that matter to you. One feature that helps you do this is a keyword search, but you can also look for keywords in the captions of photos too. For example, if you love to travel, you can look for words like trip, or adventure in people’s photo captions.
Internet dating can be dangerous. What online dating tips do you have on how can you protect yourself online?
- Trust your instincts: When it comes to dating, you have to be responsible for your own safety. So when that little voice inside speaks up and says that something's not quite right, we urge you to listen and just walk away. Chances are your subconscious picked something up that your conscious mind didn't.
- Protect your identity: Don't reveal your identity if you're not confident that the person is worthy of your trust. That's why your Yahoo! Personals mailbox is a double-blind system. It lets you communicate anonymously until you decide to reveal more information.
- Ask for a photo: A picture is worth a dozen clues about a person. If the person you're talking to won't send you one, it may be a sign to just walk away.
- Take it slow: Don't let anyone pressure you into a date. Get to know the person online first, then on the phone. If it doesn't feel right, say thanks and move on.
- Phone before you date: The phone gives you the best blend of anonymity, privacy, and "social presence" (meaning you still get a good sense of what the other person is like). Use whatever privacy features your phone offers to keep your number safe. If you decide to meet, then meet publicly.
- Meet publicly: If you choose to meet someone in person, a well-populated, public venue (like a coffee shop) is usually a smart option. It's always a good idea to have cab fare (or a car) and your mobile phone with you, and to let others know where you’ll be.
Also, I would recommend looking at our 5 Star Safety program on our Web site to see how we go about protecting our members in more detail.
When is it OK to meet someone in person you met online?
E-mail for a while first, then call, then meet face-to-face. Don't jump into any relationship without finding out more about the person's character traits. Don't just look at the outside of people, look inside and truly try to find out who that person is.
What tips do you have for an online long distance relationship?
Long distance is tough, regardless of whether you met online or not. My advice is to talk and e-mail as often as you can. Once you come to a point where you begin feeling comfortable with the individual, you should meet them in person and see if this is indeed the real thing! I can’t tell you how many success stories have started off as long distance – even as far away as Iraq!
A success story from Yahoo! Personals
Laura and Curtis knew after just three "exchanges" on Yahoo! Personals that there was an incredible connection. They clicked immediately. Over the next seven months, they continued to communicate regularly and soon realized that they had found their destiny.
Without having met Curtis in-person Laura flew down to meet him after returning from his deployment to the Middle East. Three days later, Curtis proposed and the couple wed in August of 2007.
Laura says of their connection, “We spend each day feeling blessed by the other and knowing that, although we found each other later in life, we have a beautiful ‘second half’ to look forward to with our soul mate. We couldn't be happier or feel luckier.”
What other tips and advice do you have for Internet dating?
I am a firm believer in going with your heart. I’m going to leave with the simple notion that you should give online dating a try because you have nothing to lose and so much to gain!
